Cool Greens

hillside near Lake Nokomis

Some hot and humid weather can be alleviated by iced tea and by focusing on the cool hues of greens and blues found in both the outside and now in the inside with my recently completed rag rug.  Current project:  a new warp for the loom.

Gardens Near and Far

A neighbor's lovely garden

Summit Ave/ Mississippi Overlook, St Paul, MN

I enjoy the "wide angle" view from a distance as well as the more close up location.  So many blooms are in their full glory early this year.  We had a cool day, making it much more possible to paint outside in comfort. 

Rag Rug Endings

Its finished! After three+ days of concentrated work on the rag rug made from the Marimekko strips, the project is complete. The sampler includes log cabin, two shuttle, three shuttle, "meet and part" and "tabby".  These terms describe various techniques used for rugs and are all included in this one piece which measures 109 inches. So the "rags" were the beautiful selvedges/remnants/edges which had been saved by Margaret Chesley for many years; and the fun was weaving the surprise combinations resulting from the lovely vibrant hues.

The shuttle is the wooden tool (above) which holds the cloth as it goes into the space as the warp threads separate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

On one end the "three shuttle" section is orange and the opposite end (above) has three blues.

Rag Rug Beginnings

Using a Kessinich jack loom at Color Crossing in Roberts, Wisconsin and Marimekko strips, I have begun the rag rug sampler in the Log Cabin pattern.  It was really fun to figure out tentative color plans with the expert help of weaver Judy Larsen.  As you can see, I have quite a way to go yet with all those shuttles filled with colors just waiting to be woven in!  So often I've found that weaving and its processes are such a good metaphor for much of the fabric of life.  The ambiguity of what that means is fine.  I'm learning that ambiguity can offer richness rather than simply being experienced as a lack of clarity.  This philosophical musing comes as a bonus then, for whatever it is worth; waiting to be woven in. 

Runner in a Red Shirt

This post seems a bit like one of those games: Can you find......??  As the fellow jogged past it just seemed like the right note to include that bit of red to go with all the green.  Also gives the trees some scale.  This area is near the river but in the lowlands and the water is very high at present, many of the picnic tables in this park are almost underwater. I'll maybe include another little painting from the same park in a previous season.

Hidden Falls Regional Park

The trees really do grow at those angles.

The Working River

The Mississippi River going through the Twin Cities is a National Park and Recreation Area.  Yet barges, tugboats, lifts, cables, heavy loading equipment, mounds of gravel: these also make up the life of the river.
I have a tendency to concentrate on the natural history rather than the more industrial aspects.
This latest sketching adventure is an attempt to include the human story.  There was traffic rushing across the bridge, even so, I didn't sketch the trucks etc.  Although I had my binoculars for birding, I wasn't fast enough to identify the bird flying low and quickly across the water surface in front of me.  Maybe it was a killdeer, a bird whose call I thought was familiar to me, but at that moment I was not in "birding mode".  I tend to think of nature as somehow separated from humans.  Well that is exactly our challenge.

Mississippi River, Downtown Saint Paul

Peony Garden

Minnesota Landscape Arboretum